Red Riding Hood

[TrueDave]

Listen to the Gospel of the King :
Bruce Campbell on B Movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl72o...3AF25E06389D5E

What's disenheartening about reading this thread is the lukewarm feeling modern films are giving folks. Not bad but . . just . . eh . .

If you make Chili to please too many people it will be lousy Chili.

[Brazoo]

If you make Chili to please too many people it will be lousy Chili.

Good point - There's something to that FOR SURE.

[madmarva]

I'm kind of looking forward to the Commissioner Gordon: Werewolf Hunter flick.

Gary Oldman gets to chew up scenery like Anthony Hopkins did in 1990s Dracula pick. Heck DC Comics could adapt it as an Elseworlds crossover between the Batman titles and Vertigo's Fables comics.

[Brazoo]

Don't ask me why - but I saw this thing last night.

It's so insane. Almost insane enough to recommend as a campy MST3K type thing, but maybe not quite.

Aside from Garry Oldman (who is kind of awesome in it) the funniest and most entertaining thing about it is how desperately it wants to be "Twilight". So depending on how amusing that is to you, stay away.

Surprisingly it's mostly a whodunit - I wasn't expecting that. They're trying to figure out who the werewolf is - though sometimes they seem more interested in uncovering the mystery then other times.

Anyway - look forward to the same treatment to "Snow White" which is apparently in the works now.

[madmarva]

It's kind of got a Hammer-like plot and Twilight Zone-like twist. The movie's not good, but it is atmospheric enough to be kinda fun. Oldman make something out of nothing with his part. And the leading lady is very fetching. I've sat through worse. But if there's a werewolf in it, I'll at least try to watch it.

[Brazoo]

One of the distracting things is the needless camera movements and almost random cuts - seemingly just there to create action. It's totally jarring, and I'm not talking about the action scenes - just the regular scenes where two people are talking to each other. Suddenly the camera will be arching overhead in a crane shot in the middle of a conversation and then cut back.

The lead is fetching for sure - Oldman really did seem to be having fun. I almost think he was making his accent up as he went just to mess with the director. He made me laugh a few times.

I guess the lapses in logic (and there are many) could all be explained by the fact that the movie was going for a dream-like quality, but I don't think that idea meshes well with the whodunit plot.

Like sometimes the village is in an uproar about their war with the werewolf - and sometimes they just seem to ignore everything that's happening and go about their business. It could have been interesting to do that if the whole thing was kind of in that dreamy fog - and we were just experiencing everything with the lead character - but that's not what this movie is.

Even if you're trying to get into it - you're fighting with yourself. "Okay, I'll buy that werewolves exist, but it's winter and you guys are all standing around in summer clothes! What are you doing?!" that kind of thing.

Then there's just really terrible soap opera dialog they keep using. The mother says "I just lost one daughter, I'm not going to loose another." and in the next scene the daughter says "I just lost a sister, I'm not going to loose my family".

The movie didn't do well, so fair enough - but these people still got paid to put this thing on. It's a 40+ million dollar movie, not a first time student film. Incredible.

[toys2cool]

i'll watch it

[Earth 2 Chris]

Cindy and I watched it today. It was okay. I think it's style got in the way of any substance it could have. The mystery was actually kind of compelling, but the need to have it be Twilight-esque and work in all the not-so-impressive overdone camera angles and cuts took away from that. I did figure out who the werewolf was beforehand, but they threw some good red herrings in there. It does have some nice Hammer-like atmosphere about it.

The dialog was pretty bad though. And these peasant kids were way too hip looking. I mean I don't think they had hair mousse in the 1500s, I'm pretty sure.

Oldman was great as always. He could redo Plan 9 From Outer Space sitting on a bucket and it would be worth watching.

It's worth a rental, for a buck. Or free, like I got it from the library.

Chris

[BlackKnight]

WORSE than Twilight.
Chick Flick.
Nuff Said.

[wayne foundation 07]

Hoodwinked was a fun kid's adaptation of Riding Hood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVqRm8G97U

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H1SQXVDZpA...hoodwinked.jpg

I loved that one!

[Earth 2 Chris]

WORSE than Twilight.
Chick Flick.
Nuff Said.

I wouldn't say any of that. It's definitely NOT a chick flick. I don't think any "chicks" would really like this much, if they weren't into horror somewhat.

I think it wants to be a somewhat artsy, high-budget horror retelling. But the Twilight influence creeps into the love story, and the looks and motivations of the characters. I'm sure it was intentional, given the director helmed the first Twilight film, and the actor who plays the Twilight chick's dad is the dad in this as well.

Another thing I forgot to mention before: There are 3 actors in this who guested on Smallville in the last two seasons. Michael Shanks (who played Hawkman), the guy who played Slade/Deathstroke, and the lady who played Granny Goodness. Kind of odd.

Chris

[BlackKnight]

I wouldn't say any of that. It's definitely NOT a chick flick.

Well ofcourse you wouldn't Chris ...., Just like I don't agree with 95% of the Nonsense you write in the Comicbook section about Modern Comics.

... Seriously though... In My house, this was put in by Women, and Boughten by Women. It is what it is.

Horror ?
Really ?
Talking Dog Wolves ...
Romance between 3 People...
The Main Story centered about a Love Story...
Inwhich the Lover lives at the end.
Chick Flick..., Horror Not Bro.

[Brazoo]

Personally, I considered it to be a blatant stab at the growing female young-adult gothic/romance/horror market.

So "chick flick" sums that up pretty well for me.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Hey, just because I'm more in touch with my sensitive side...

Maybe it's where I'm not into all the torture-porn horror that comes out these days. Since I won't watch any of that nonsense, my definition of "horror" is still skewed back to Hammer-like stuff.

Why the hell am I defending this movie? You guys are probably right. Chick-flick with horror overtones.

Chris

[Brazoo]

Oh - I agree with you that it's in the horror genre! My sister-in-law is 17 and all the books she reads now are Twilight style young-adult romance/horror books. I just felt this fit in well with that. It even had the same director as the first Twilight movie.

I think you're right - I think the Hammer stuff was going for a sexy/romantic gothic horror style too - but I think the intended audience is different.

I'm glad you liked it! I was entertained by parts, but it mostly drove me crazy.